I like my cinnamon rolls to be tender and not too bready, with the perfect ratio of cinnamon, and with just the right amount of cream cheese icing on the top.

My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

I have a confession to make about this recipe.

It’s my husband’s.

He is the cinnamon roll maker around our house and until recently, he kept his recipe a secret.

He took his mother’s prized cinnamon roll recipe and tweaked it just a bit to turn out the most absolutely perfect cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted.

Goodness gracious am I ever thankful he’s finally sharing his recipe.

I think you’ll be pretty thankful for his cinnamon roll recipe, too.

Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

How to Make Cinnamon Rolls

Here’s the step-by-step process, including photos, of how Bart makes his amazing cinnamon rolls!

Pour the yeast and sugar into your warmed milk.

Note, the milk should not be warmed above 110ºF or it will kill the yeast. You can double check them temperature with an instant read thermometer.

Allow the yeast to bubble.

Mix in the butter, salt, eggs, and flour. Mix until well-combined.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Gently knead to form a soft dough.

Place the dough in a large buttered glass bowl. Now, let the dough work it’s magic and rise until the dough has doubled in size.

Place the dough onto a large lightly floured surface. We use one end of our island countertop for rolling the dough.

If you are limited on space, divide dough in half and repeat the next steps for each portion of the dough.

Roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Spread softened butter on your dough.

I’ll declare, this is one of the most important steps to a yummy cinnamon roll. Don’t skimp.

Mix together your brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle liberally all over the buttered dough.

I like for my cinnamon rolls to taste like cinnamon rolls. So this is a good balance of cinnamon and sugar for the filling. It’s absolutely perfect for me, but if there is any area to make your own with this recipe, it would be the portion of cinnamon and sugar for the filling. You could reduce if you like.

But I wouldn’t.

Make sure you’ve gotten every little bit of your your dough covered with the cinnamon and sugar filling. You’ll want every little bite to have some of this deliciousness.

Gently begin rolling the long edge of your dough.

Roll.

Roll.

And roll.

Grab a long piece of dental floss or thread, about a foot long, and slide it under one end of your rolled dough.

Quickly pull the two ends of your thread together to cut the dough at about 3/4 to 1 inch.

Place rolls onto a buttered, rimmed baking sheet and allow the rolls to rise for 30 minutes. Go ahead and turn on your oven to 400 degrees now to be preheating for baking.

Stare at your sweet puppy or play with your kids during this part. Or, better yet, you could go ahead and mix up your icing.

Whatever floats your boat.

Pop your cinnamon rolls into your oven and bake until your rolls are slightly brown and not doughy. For my oven, this takes about 15 – 25 minutes.

Now is not the time to run off and do something really involved. Stick close to your oven.

You absolutely, without a doubt, do NOT want to over bake these babies. That would be an absolute travesty.

When they are done, they should look like this. Oh my goodness, I’ve just gained another five pounds just looking at this picture. But wait, the other five comes in just a second.

And there it is. The most perfect cinnamon roll I’ve ever put into my mouth.

Thank you sweetheart for sharing your recipe. Now I get to make your cinnamon rolls whenever the fancy strikes me.

Make-Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

Bake the cinnamon rolls as directed in the recipe and then let them cool completely. Then, wrap them well with plastic wrap followed by foil. To serve, thaw them in the refrigerator overnight. Then, remove both wraps, and reheat in a 300°F oven for about 10 minutes until they are warmed through. Once they are warmed throughout, frost them while still warm and serve!

Here’s his Cinnamon Roll Recipe. I think you are going to love ’em!

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Bart's Cinnamon Rolls Recipe - This cinnamon roll recipe produces perfectly light and fluffy cinnamon rolls every time! So simple to make, this is a family favorite cinnamon roll recipe!

Cinnamon Roll Filling:

Cinnamon Roll Frosting:

Instructions

Cinnamon Roll Dough:

Add yeast and sugar to warm milk in a large bowl. Stir gently to combine and allow the yeast to foam to proof. Once the yeast has proofed, stir in melted butter, salt, eggs, and flour into yeast mixture. Gently mix until well-combined.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10-12 minutes. Form the dough into a large ball and place into a large buttered glass bowl. Cover lightly with plastic or with a tea towel and place in a warm location free of any drafts. Allow to rise so that the dough is doubled in size.

Cinnamon Roll Filling:

Place dough on a large lightly floured surface and roll to a 1/4 inch thickness. Spread softened butter over the top of the dough.

Stir together the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle generously all over the buttered dough.

Tightly roll the dough, beginning at the long edge, until a log of dough has been formed.

Cut the dough into 3/4-inch to 1-inch slices and place onto a lightly buttered sheet pan.

Baking and Icing:

Preheat oven to 400º Fahrenheit.

Allow rolls to rise for 30 minutes on sheet pan.

Place rolls into oven and allow to cook until lightly browned and cooked through, but not overcooked, about 15-20 minutes.

Video

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Notes

Stand Mixer Instructions: Use your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook once the yeast has proofed. Stir in melted butter, salt, eggs, and flour. Gently mix until well-combined. Continue using the dough hook to knead dough in mixer for 6-8 minutes. Continue on with the recipe as instructed.

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You are an evil, .evil woman 😉 I have generally been able to avoid these fattening treats because the roll part has always been too dense (or ‘bready’ as you wrote) and the icing too cloyingly sweet….and then I made these. The roll just melts away in your mouth -too bad the jogging miles won’t melt away as easily. Thank you for sharing your treasured family recipe.

(I learned of your blog from Brown Eyed Baker – you can share some of the blame with her!)

Thank you so much for putting a make ahead addition to these! I love fresh (less bready) cinnamon rolls, but I’d never have time to make them in the morning so I love the idea I can pop one in the toaster oven before heading off to work and have a nice cinnamon roll with or without the icing ????

Thoroughly enjoyed this recepie. I actually ended up with 2 batches as I thought my first yeast activation had failed so I started again. Once my second yeast was still I went back to the first and it was ready! First batch was much tastier and didn’t taste doughy like the second batch did: so note would be to ensure you wait for activation of the yeast: crucial step! This an take up to 15min.
The house smells Delicious and everyone has loved them. Thankyou!

I made cinnamon rolls for the first time ever following this recipe for my boyfriend’s birthday and he and his family absolutely loved them. My boyfriend asked me if I could make them for Christmas again. Thank you so much sharing this recipe.

This was my first time making cinnamon rolls or any kind of dough from scratch. I was a little worried after putting the rolls on my pan and doing the second prove, they didnt puff up as much as I expected, but these came out wonderfully! I wanted to add some nuts to these so I melted 3/4c butter and 3/4c brown sugar with 1/2c of walnuts, and rolled up another 1/2 cup of nuts in the rolls. I also added about a tbs of maple syrup to the frosting for a little flavor kick. These are so much better than any other cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had. Thank you for the recipe!

I printed the Cinnamon.roll receipt and I am making them right now. For the dough it calls for 1/2c. granulated sugar BUT it doesn’t tell you that it goes with the rest of dough ingredients. I have been trying new receipts since I am home 99% of the time and this one was a puzzlement.

Hi Laurayne –
I hope you enjoy the cinnamon rolls! They are such a family favorite!
The recipe details when to add that sugar to the Dough in step 1 of the recipe instructions.
I hope this helps! Thanks!

Hi Brittney,
I’ve shared several step by step photos and details in the written post that may help in addition to the recipe instructions. This will give the amounts of time where you need to allow for proofing, rising, etc. I hope you enjoy the cinnamon rolls! Thanks!

there are three separate instructions for making the dough that all neglect to say to add the sugar. might want to fix that since my dough ended up being not sweet at all because i’m a novice and thought “well its on the ingredient list but three separate times it just says to add egg, salt and flour and nothing about adding the granulated sugar”

I will keep making these just to practice that string cutting technique! Ingenous, can’t wait for them to rise now and bake, will repost afterwards.

Ok, I blew it! 😉 I became distracted at the baking time and ended up adding too much vanilla to the icing, again ;), so a bit more 10xx sugar, snitching the smaller rolls and dunking into icing while waiting to “cool a bit”.

Fabulously, WINDERFUL, BACK IN MY HAPPY PLACE, as in Michigan, this time of year get a bit grumpy and haven,t baked in quite awhile, Thank you and Bart,

Rolls are AWESOME Family, Friends, Coworkers, all consume like sharks at a feeding frenzy. When I make them. Mine seem to require more rise time. I use rapid rise yeast but from make to bake is about 3 hours. I let dough rise in warm (not on) oven. Don’t mind extra time, just get hungrier. Thanks for recipe.

Hi Ron,
I’m so happy you like the cinnamon rolls too!
You can follow the make ahead directions for the cinnamon rolls. These are delicious made ahead and baked fresh on Christmas morning for breakfast and then having for Christmas dessert as well! I hope this helps! Thanks!

The packets of yeast is usually 2.25 teaspoons, but I gave both measurements to make sure to clarify. I hope you enjoy them, Lauren! I share a video within the post that shows every detail of making them – it may be helpful as well. Thanks!

Second time using this recipe and it’s great! Only one thing I do differently and that’s add a little buttermilk to the frosting instead of using butter. I watch for the same consistency but I always have buttermilk to get rid of around the holidays. Thanks!!! 🙂

I loved this recipe. The only thing I changed is that I mixed the butter and sugar together and spread on thd dough. When I tried doing it with the sugar on top, it slipped too much during rolling up. Mixing the butter and sugar together was much easier to work with and quite as tasty. Thanks for a brilliant recipe!!

Hi Robin! From Texas….visiting grandkid do’s in MT and attempting to make these rolls. After the dough is cut into 1” and placed in the rimmed baking sheet, it says to let rise for 30 min.
Question: In that thirty minutes, are the rolls suppose to rise to “double” again like first rise in the bowel?
If so, it’s been longer than the specified time and have risen some, but not close to doubled.
Question: If not suppose to, will the rolls expand in baking?
Everyone has gone to bed with hopes of beautiful cinnamon rolls like in the photo!!
Thank you for sharing!

I bake quite a lot of bread but this was my first time making cinnamon rolls. The only thing I did differently was I combined the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter before spreading it on the dough. Someone in the comments mentioned doing this and it made sense. These rolls turned out perfectly. I ended up with 20 large rolls and I made the kids and hubby happy. We even took some out for my parents and they were impressed. This is a keeper recipe for me. There really isn’t anything I’d change about it.

Hi James,
It sounds like you have it correct – but you won’t be thawing as you won’t need to freeze them for serving the next day. The mention of thawing was just if you froze them.
I hope this helps and that you enjoy them!